Everyone knows a nerd or two. Do you know the top nerds in the world, and by top, I mean the people who took visionary nerdiness, elbow grease, and luck and translated it all into billion dollar companies? Below, you will find 15 faces (nine singles, 3 doubles). Most readers will be able to name 3 or 4. Real techies can name 5-10. If you can name more, you are a true guru. All 15? Well, there’s a special place for you.

To get the answers, simply place your mouse over the image until the alt tag pops up. If it doesn’t, scroll down to the list of answers with links to the source stories where the pictures were found. Are you ready? Can you…

Name that Nerd?

#1

“We’ve done a lot but we are still a small company, just over 300 employees. There are a lot of interesting things happening in that space, however don’t know when it’s going to be, and as a small company we have to prioritize things. Something for the future.”

#2

“We had to use all of our credit cards and our friends’ credit cards and our parents’ credit cards.”

“Research on the Web seems to be fashionable these days and I guess I’m no exception.”

#3

“I admit that when I think of the money one could make from all this, I get a little twinge. But I’m pretty happy with nerd values: Get yourself a comfortable living, then do a little something to change the world.”

#4

“We ought to be looking at business as a force for good.”

“I was just pursuing what I enjoyed doing. I mean, I was pursuing my passion.”

“I’ve got a passion for solving a problem that I think I can solve in a new way. And that maybe it helps that nobody has done it before as well.”

#5

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”

“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”

“If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”

#6

“I actually thought that it would be a little confusing during the same period of your life to be in one meeting when you’re trying to make money, and then go to another meeting where you’re giving it away.”

#7

“But the idea that some day people would want to be able to interact and get stock quotes and talk with other people or all these different things, I just believed that was going to happen.”

“One of the biggest challenges we had in the first decade was not that many people had personal computers. There weren’t that many people to sell to, and it was hard to identify them.”

#8

“As a business, if you cannot change the law, follow the law. Respect the local government. We’re not interested in politics. We’re just focused on e-commerce.”

“It helps a ton when you learn people’s names and don’t butcher them when trying to pronounce them.”

#9

“I think there’s a lot of niches out there that aren’t being filled — say, hundreds of thousands of people who want to learn how to cross stitch. I can’t say we’re going to make that show, but there would be an audience for it online. For us, it’s been gradually expanding out from the tech and geek genre; we have a music show now, and we’ve got a bunch of good shows coming up later this year.”

#10

“I tend to see people trying to do stuff that is an uphill struggle. Pay attention to what works, and do that.”

“It sounds crazy, but even in the first plan that I wrote up, I mentioned AOL, Yahoo! and Hotmail, knowing we would be big. And it’s crazy to think that it happened.”

#11

“A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.”

#12

“I see our service as one that’s been needed for a long time. The pieces to make it all happen just weren’t in place until we came around.”

“We needed it to be a no-brainer.”

“We allowed the community to tell us what was entertaining them.”

“We are building a community, and we don’t want to bombard people with advertising.”

Thankfully today there are lots of websites that offer ample tips and guides for designing enthusiasts like you.
The home was a show-off piece and stated one’s place in society.
Cinema Shop offers a wide variety starting at right around $300; they have nacho and sno-cone machines, as well.